SPerl
by Farla
Summary: Maka's from a race of acrophobes who think problems should be solved by diplomacy and war is the greatest evil imaginable. She's just entered the Incipisphere. What does she do now?
1. White

Most of my stuff will have to stay on AooO as it has pesterlogs in it, but this doesn't so here it is. If you want to read all the other stuff, there's a link on my profile.

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><p>Chapter One<p>

Everything outside was white. Was the house floating? She pulled the window open, letting in a gust of chilly, damp air, and stuck her head out, trying to look down.

She couldn't see anything but more white. She wedged her tail against the wall and slid further out.

There was ground after all, with a few scrub brushes just visible against the clay wall. Within a half foot it gave way to the whiteness. From her angle, she couldn't tell if the ground ended and the white was below, or if it had flowed on top to block her view. Whatever it was, it didn't reach any higher than that. She could see the sky overhead, although it looked like a storm was lurking, just a wide expanse of darkness without stars.

She pushed against the wall and wiggled back inside. So her house had come with her and at least some ground, and she wasn't just in some empty void but somewhere with up and down and sky. How far down did the ground go? If everyone connected, would they fill this white space up?

At least the countdown had stopped. Or perhaps it was just reset. The little LED screens on each side were blank again, but the cruxtruder was still there, squatting ominously like something that could be really dead or just waiting.

The computer was lowing. She turned away from the window finally and went to hear what her friend wanted.

"What the hell were you doing? I thought you were going to fall!"

"Don't say that kind of thing," she said, shuddering. "I was just looking around outside."

"I can see outside! Next time ask me. Don't get yourself killed doing something dumb. Not after surviving the worst part."

"Okay okay. Well, what's outside?"

"Clouds. I think."

"Clouds? That's what all the white is?"

"I can see the ground drop off for a little way. You're on a plateau."

"What? I'm- How high up am I?"

"I don't know. I can't see the bottom. Or if there is one."

"There must be some way. There has to be a bottom!" she yelled.

"Calm down!"

"You don't know where I am!"

"There's a bottom, the house is sitting on ground to it must touch something. I can only see a few feet down, it might not be that bad. I don't think clay would support weight if it was that high up."

"It's bedrock."

"Oh."

"Figure it out! Zoom the screen out or something!"

"It doesn't do anything, I can't see through the clouds. Don't panic."

"I could be dozens of feet up!"

"You just stuck your head out a window!"

"I thought everything was solid! There's a difference!"

"The clouds might be mist. Maybe you're near the bottom. We can alchemize some rope..."

She shuddered. "I..."

"I don't know how else to get you down! I can't pick you up-"

"Don't pick me up!"

"It doesn't matter, I can't. We can lower just the rope first and see how far it goes."

"I'm going to go out," she said, pulling the headset off quickly, before she could think too much about what she was doing. She dropped onto her stomach and slithered down the tunnel staircase to the ground floor.

Not that ground floor really meant - she shuddered and kept going on all fours. It was a little more comforting being lower down, even if it was just an illusion. A few feet of difference wouldn't matter if she was on top of some spindly mesa.

She had to take a few breaths before she stood and opened the door. To her relief there wasn't an immediate drop. It seemed the front part of her home had included a large patch of the surrounding area. She dropped back down and made her way to the edge.

It was mist. She couldn't see anything but more white. She reached down and realized the edge wasn't sheer. It was concave.

She shuddered and scrambled backward, then twisted and shot back into the house. She had to get down.

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><p>In the spirit of interactivity, please suggest whatever you'd like to see. You can also suggest nameslands/titles/consorts - some of that's decided, but most is not.


	2. Talk of Talking

Talk of Talking

She was up high. She was up high on something that didn't even go straight down, the edge she'd touched had gone in sharply and her house was probably on top of a thin bit of rock like a lilypad's stem, and she couldn't stop picturing how lilypads tipped when they came out of water. She had to get down before it tipped and the rock broke and she _fell_. She ummed miserably. Stupid, it wasn't like her mom was here.

The only good thing, she thought as she shot back up to the second floor where her headphones and server player waited, was that as awful as this was, at least that horrible, horrible Kernalsprite would be gone now.

"MuZZZZZZZZZZZZtch! tchZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz."

Maka skidded to a halt and fought the urge to whimper.

"Hey... Spot..." she said. "You're...bigger now."

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZver!" the sprite said. It looked even more like Spot now. Before it had just been a head.

It was supposed to be gone. She'd been promised she wouldn't have to see her pet as this broken gibberish spewing monster if she could just complete whatever the alchemiser did.

"Just...stay here, okay? Don't do anything... Don't worry. At least you float."

"VkerZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ~!"

She edged sideways, then darted for the headphones.

"Stop running around!"

"What's wrong with Spot?" Maka demanded. "You said it was going to break up and go away! It's still here!"

"I - it split up. These black and white blobs, and those floated off, but I guess the sprite got left behind. I thought when it broke up it'd be gone. The game doesn't really explain."

"You said it would go away!" she wailed.

"We have bigger problems!"

"You can't _hear_ it, it's still making noise and it can't talk and it's awful! "

"Look I'm sorry about your cow but it couldn't talk before either, stop panicking over this!"

"She could so!"

"Maka, it's a cow!" She flattened against the ground and croaked miserably. "Knock that off!"

"Maybe it wasn't like a _person_ but she could still _speak_ and you made her _dumb, you did that to her_ -"

"Stop saying that!"

"-and she was the best pet and she'd follow me everywhere and you made it so she can't speak and she's trying to and she can't and she's stuck like that and you won't fix it-"

"I said I don't know how! I didn't realize it was your pet, okay? Why would you put a dead pet in your freezer!"

"-_you did it to her you made her dumb she can't speak_-" Maka stopped. There was just static in her ears now. She pulled the headphones off.

The sprite had floated closer. "ZZZZZZZZZZZmZZZZZZZZZZZ!"

She shuddered. "You're not really Spot, right?" Maka said, standing up carefully. "Spot died. We were going to bury her. You're just her shape and a bunch of computer sounds."

"BzTZZZZZZZZZZZZmt." The sprite tilted its head exactly like Spot used to.

Maka shuddered. "I'm sorry. I didn't know this would happen, I would've burned you or something, I just - " And then something grabbed her tail.

She yelped, smacking it against the wall, and turned, pulling her tail away.

And stared. The thing was black with white spots, a bit shorter and a lot smaller than she was. She'd never seen anything like that, and she'd seen practically everything when it came to animals. It looked a bit like a squished ape, its limbs oddly short and stubby, but they seemed to work well enough as it got up.

"I'm sorry," Maka said. "You startled meah wait!" she yelped, scrambling backward as it jumped at her. "I didn't intend to hurt you, can we talk about this?" She watched it for any response. "Hello? Are you an ape? Do you talk? I don't wish to - " It punched her in the snout.

It didn't taste like anything, though. As soon as she bit through its head it turned into, or disappeared and was replaced with, weird blocky things. She wondered if that meant it was dead. She touched one tentatively and it vanished with a pop.

"ZZZZZZZZZXm."

She shuddered but looked over at Spot. "The game isn't over, that's it right? There's something else I've gotta do before you can break up?"

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZty."

"I really hope the rock holds," she whined, stomach rolling. "I'm going down. The totem lathe is downstairs, maybe I have to make something."

"XchtZtch."


	3. Ascending

Maka: List interests.

Maka is far too busy TRYING TO MAKE THE GAME END and BEING A WHINY BABY to list her interests! She is currently UP HIGH on a PRESUMABLY UNSTABLE STRUCTURE. Her beloved PET has been turned into SOMETHING SHE WOULD CALL A BLASPHEMOUS ABOMINATION IF ONLY HER CULTURE HAD A CONCEPT OF BLASPHEMY instead of SOME SECULAR BULLSHIT. Her repeated ACCUSATIONS TO THIS EFFECT have caused her SERVER PLAYER to CUT COMMUNICATIONS in a HUFF. Also, SOME SORT OF SPOTTED APE THING that did not appear CAPABLE OF SPEECH attacked her, to its DETRIMENT.

She is currently on the LOWER FLOOR of her CLAY-BASED HOUSE crying for her MOMMY.

Maka: Make rope to get down.

The idea of that is why Maka's curled in a ball making distress noises like a buried hatchling, stupid!

Maka: Stop being a whiny baby.

Good luck with that.

Maka: Be distracted by beloved pet turned incoherent monstrosity.

"TRVvvvvvXch."

"...hi Spot," Maka mumbled, open,opening her eyes.

"~"

The cow thing...what was it now, just the sprite? Whatever it was, it was hovering next to the box of nuts Maka had fed Spot as treats. "Do you want one?" she asked hopefully, heading over. This was the first sign of anything understandable from it.

It produced another string of broken wire noises. Maka opened up the box anyway, holding one out. "Here." She waved it, seeing if the sprite would react. "Do you want a..." A black and white ape thing appeared behind it and Maka jumped in surprise, losing her grip.

There was a bright flash.

"Maka, hello Maka!"

"You're talking!" Maka squealed, wiggling in delight. "Spot you're okay! And you can talk! Really talk!" The sprite's spots were gone. Its skin was covered by a nutshell pattern. And it was looking back at her just like Spot used to. "Um...you are Spot, right?"

"Yes Maka. I think I'm here to help you! You have a lot to do here in the Medium."

"That's where I am now?"

"Yes! A place outside of time, made of dark and light within the Incipisphere."

Maka hadn't seen any sign of dark, aside from those spotted apes. "Do I have to make something to finish this game?"

"You have to help make the most important thing in the world I think."

Maka looked over to the various alchemy devices. "Oh. Can I make that here? And then put my house back home instead of being up high? I'm really sure something will break soon."

"Don't be scared Maka I can catch you! That is what sprites are for."

"Thanks, Spot. But I'd still really like to get down as fast as possible. I don't even know how high up I am or anything! Is there any way I can do that? Without, um, I don't want to be dangling or anything."

"Yes you have to go down to your land below to play the game! It's very important I think. And to descend you have to ascend first. Above your house are the Seven Gates. You have to build up to the first Gate. Then you'll begin your destiny as Knight on the Land below!"

"Build...up?" Maka repeated. "But won't that just put more weight on whatever's supporting my house now?"

"Don't be afraid Maka. Weight has no weight here! Your server player will be able to build up and up and up into the sky!"

She shuddered. "Is that the only way to get down?"

"Unless you can fly!" Spot said helpfully.

Maka whimpered, pressing flat against the floor. "Okay. Okay, server player builds up to the gate." She scuttled up the stairs, back to her computer.

She jammed the headphones on again. "Hey! Are you there?"

"Yes. Are you finally over your cow?"

"Spot can talk! Why didn't you say anything about that?"

"Maka, listen to yourself."

"No really, she can! She told me that there are gates and you have to build up toward them and then I can get down."

Silence.

"Well?" she demanded.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"I don't care I want to get down!" she yelled, lashing her tail. "I have no idea what's going on or what I'm supposed to do and Spot wouldn't lie to me anyway, she's my friend and she says it's the only way down and I hate this I keep thinking the ground is moving and I'm about to fall and I want to get down!"

"Fine, fine I just said it doesn't make sense that's all. I think I can see those gates if I zoom out. Uh..."

"What?"

"They're floating really high up."

"You're supposed to build or something."

"What, like another story? Maka your house is already two stories high. And even if I add a third story it's not going to get you anywhere near it. I don't even know how many it'd take."

"Spot says it's okay, it'll work."

"It's a cow Maka."

"Well she knows more than you do! She knew there were gates and what this place is called and that I have to do a bunch of stuff before the game's over."

"Look, I'll try it. See what you can make in the meantime. Maybe more computers, you won't be able to run up and down _a billion stories of stairs_ to talk to me here all the time. And the ton of grist it'll take to duplicate your house."

"Could you just make stairs?"

"Huh?"

"Instead of a whole level, what if you just made stairs up?"

"You don't think it's bad enough as it is?"

"Well if you make walls I won't be able to fall out. Or see how high it is."

Silence again.

"I want to get down!" Maka yelled.

"I'll do it, I'll do it. Your sprite's killed a bunch of those things that are running around, so collect the grist from them so I don't run out. And see what you can make, okay?"


	4. The Land of White and Black

The archiveofourown version of this comes with a sketch. I'm not going to post a mutilated link here when it'd be less effort for anyone interested to just find it over there than to repair the link from here.

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><p>Maka found herself standing on solid, damp rock, smelling fresh water. As far as she could see was more jet black and jagged stone, like the whole landscape was made of obsidian. Some of the spikes were high enough to block her view, while other sections were low enough that there were black puddles of water in the depressions.<p>

She wasn't only lower, she was all the way down at _water level_. This place was wonderful. The color scheme wasn't too bad either. She twisted her bag around so it was hidden under her belly then made her way down. She was only a bit lighter than her surroundings, so she'd have an easier time avoiding any weird animals down here, at least if they used sight. The rock felt pleasantly warm against the underside of her tail, but it was still cooler than she was. She was pretty sure apes couldn't see with heat, though. And smell wouldn't be accurate enough to really worry about.

The sky was blocked by white...clouds... She shuddered and dropped flat, umming fearfully and digging her claws into the grooves in the stone. She'd been up _above the clouds_. That was, that was, she didn't even know how high up that was. She'd thought they were low clouds, fog or something, not whatever terrible number was the actual distance to those in the sky.

She wasn't there now. She was down here, safe and at water level with nice solid stone. You couldn't fall at water level, and she didn't have to ever go back there again. Maybe she could get Spot to bring her things down here, or she could make copies of everything. She could do whatever Knight business there was and win the game without needing her house.

Maka scuttled over to a pool of water. It was clear, invisible against the rock in the dim light from the clouds, but it was far deeper than she'd expected, going down at least ten feet. Nothing seemed to be growing in it, and it smelled more like water from a tap than something out in the open. She dipped her mouth in cautiously and tasted, and it was just...water. Nothing else, no hint of life. Not even the tang of minerals. Weird. She got back onto her hind legs and looked around. There must be someone alive around.

She found a wide trench that could have been a river if everything wasn't so still, and slid into the cool water. She swam down, slipping between unworn juts of stone and found nothing but more obsidian at the bottom.

Maka surfaced and continued until she found more of the apes. It was easy, all three had white spots that made them stand out at a distance on the endless black rock. One had hooves and the other two paws. She'd seen both types in her house, as well as ones with faces like Spot's, but she hadn't been able to get this close with Spot zapping them into grist. As far as she understood, they were modified in similar ways to combining punch cards, taking on the qualities of what had been in the kernel. Apparently that covered hooves but not quadrupedalism.

These ones stuck to the higher areas, although the hoofed one didn't seem able to handle the steeper slopes and was a bit below the other two. She lifted her head out of the water. Maybe they'd be less aggressive out here.

The closer ape, with hooves, hissed and rushed down toward her, gnashing its teeth. A few seconds later one of the pawed apes noticed, then the last one as well. They didn't seem to be paying any attention to each other. Even simple animals would usually notice what another one was doing, and all apes she knew were relatively smart. And what would the point of all the noise they made if it wasn't meant to attract their attention? It just warned her one had noticed she was there. Maybe it was meant to intimidate her? She moved her tail lazily. She was confident she could outswim them if it came to that.

The ones with hooves put down a foot in a pool of water and recoiled, flailing its arms around to keep its balance. It carefully edged around the area, only to come to the edge of the larger pond she was in and repeat the process. Then it just stared and hissed at her from the water's edge.

All three ended up there, side by side and grinding their teeth together. They couldn't swim or even tell where the water was without stumbling over it, Maka thought. The game hadn't done anything to make them suited to this place.

"You really don't talk?" Maka asked. "You don't even have a concept of talking?" They kept hissing and snarling over her.

She submerged. They quieted immediately, as if they thought she was actually gone. Don't even have object permanence, Maka thought, popping out again. She lunged for the left one, closing her jaws around its middle and then jerking back into the water before the other two could react. The ape popped into build grist, which then popped out of existence at her touch. The other two were still standing there, as if they hadn't noticed her attacking one of them. She grabbed the next one.

What a weird place, though. If it was made by the game... Spot had seemed a bit confused on if the game had made it or just brought her to somewhere that already existed. Maybe the planet here was incomplete and she was supposed to transform it as well with some similar alchemy? There must be more to it than just making wireless headphones and weird shoes, and Spot said there was something more to do down here than ape watching. She probably should have asked more, but she'd been preoccupied with getting somewhere safe before she fell.

She reached the end of her current pool and climbed back onto the stone.

"Hey. Kid."

Maka jumped to her feet. There was someone there! Much bigger than one of the apes, about her size, and dressed in clothes - a shirt and pants made with a white and brown spotted pattern that looked a lot like her cow's. It resembled the apes a bit, four-limbed and bipedal, tailless and black, though it seemed to have something like shell for skin.

"Hello my name is Maka!" she blurted out, running over. "I'm so happy to meet you! Do the smaller apes talk I tried to talk to them but I couldn't get a response they're not your young or anything are they? What's your name? Do you -"

It stabbed her. Maka shot back into the water. A few seconds later she felt the water vibrate with something thrashing around, and turned to see the black thing flailing around as it sank

She twisted and swam back. It still had a knife clutched in one hand and she wasn't sure of the claws on the other, so she grabbed it by the back of its shirt and pulled it back into the rock.

"I'm sorry if I offended you," she told it.

It gasped a few times, then dragged itself the rest of the way out of the water and stood up. "Thanks," it said after a moment.

"I'd like it if you didn't stab me again," Maka said.

She got a grudging, "Fine."

The creature was not related to the apes. He introduced himself as Jack, an agent of the kingdom of Derse, which was also a planet, but not this planet, although this planet was part of their kingdom.

"You have space travel?" Maka said, awed.

He gave her a stare. "Whadya mean?"

"You can travel between planets!"

"An... that's a big deal to you?" he said slowly. "You're pretty easily impressed, aren't you kid."

"It's so _far_," Maka said.

"This is the same bullshit as your whining about how your house is up high isn't it. Kid, you are the most pathetic destined hero I've ever met. How do you expect to get anything done if you can't even handle going to another planet. What do you think all those Gates are for?"

"I'm supposed to do that?" she squealed. "You mean I'll get to go to your planet?"

"Well, I was talking 'bout the Lands and Skaia. But now that you mention it..." He grinned at her, his mouth full of friendly sharp teeth. "Do you know anything about queens?"

Maka: Describe yourself.

Maka is of AVERAGE HEIGHT AND BUILD. Her tail is a bit longer than usual and makes up OVER HALF HER SIZE. She knows a great deal about ANIMALS. She has LOVELY DARK EYES.

She has had a SHELTERED BUT ISOLATED upbringing. She lived AT THE COOLER EDGE OF THEIR LANDS, near MOUNTAINS, therefore she DRESSES EXTREMELY LIGHTLY so her SUN-ABSORBING SCALES can help keep her warm. The lack of PEOPLE probably contributed to her BLEEDING HEART NONSENSE about SOME ANIMALS having LANGUAGE even when they are not technically ABLE TO TALK. She feels strongly about THIS AND OTHER SUBJECTS and regularly gets into ARGUMENTS with her friends.

She has unusually keen senses, including a RUDIMENTARY HEAT SENSE which is BASICALLY NONFUNCTIONAL in most of her species.

She is twelve years old.

Also, she is a six foot long crocodile.


	5. Grownup

SPerl is rated E for everyone.

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>"...but Suchi refused to listen to Meko and Orel refused to listen to Letii and they insisted that fighting was the only way, because there could only be one group and one leader. So before morning Meko killed Suchi and Letii killed Orel instead, and then they made a truce together."<p>"So you do understand this kind of thing, at least."<p>

Maka nodded. "Right! A system of direct democracy is the proper way to deal with problems."

He smacked his palm into his face. Maka stared back in confusion. "But you get that sometimes you've gotta smash a few eggs to make-"

"Why would you smash eggs? You have to break them carefully or you'd hurt the baby!"

Jack smacked himself with his other hand. "You. Do you get that sometimes people are in charge and that's bad."

"It's important never ever listen to a single person who wants to use people for their own gain," Maka said. "Everybody has to be vigilant so that kind of thing never happens again."

"But say they are in charge and they're not going to listen to your advice about, democracy."

"That'd be really sad."

"Yeah it's a tragedy," he said flatly. "But you know what else is a tragedy? Having them around. Like. For example. Our monarchs."

"Um," Maka said.

"There's two of 'em. One's on Skaia and the other GLORIOUS MONARCH is back on Derse directing everything. I work under that WISE AND JUST RULER. That's why I'm stuck in this WONDERFUL spotted outfit, to reflect the prototyping. HER MAJESTY made sure I got a new uniform as soon as the tower lit up. There's even a cow hat that's with it. Was with it. I'm supposed to wear a WELL-MADE cow head."

For a second, he glared at her, but then he half smiled again, even though his eyes were still hard.

"So kid, here's the thing. They're your enemies anyway, they oppose the heroes. And you know what they say." He grinned. "Enemy of my enemy is my friend. The sooner she's gone the better for both of us."

"I. Um," Maka said. "That's. I need an adult."

"You what."

"I'm not qualified to make a decision!"

"What the hell are you going on about!"

"It's important to respect different cultures," Maka squeaked, backing up. Her tail waved nervously behind her, feeling for anything in her way. "I - my mom - I'm not - she's the sort of person who'd know what to do! Or someone else! There's lots of adults, they're the ones - "

"Your mom's dead."

Maka stopped. "No she's not," Maka said.

"Your whole planet is dead," he said, walking closer with every word. "They were as soon as you decided to play the game. The Reckoning will be unleashed on Skaia, and Skaia sends it back to where you came from. So congratulations!" They were almost nose to nose now, his white terrible eyes wide. "You've been promoted, kid. Ain't no one older than you now. Time to grow up and make decisions like an adult."

"You're lying!" Maka roared.

"I'm not." He was showing all his teeth but his voice was low and hateful. "What are you going to do about it, kid? Ask your dead mommy for advice?"

Maka twisted and pushed off with her legs. She heard him shout "You-" and then the crash of water cut off the rest.

She surfaced only when her chest began to throb, letting fresh air flow into her lungs and the stale bubble out. She didn't recognize where she was, though that didn't say much about how far she'd really gone. She couldn't see Jack anywhere, though.

She'd come up right next to an underling. For a second, Maka thought of lunging out, clamping her jaws around it and twisting. But then she slumped back and turned, climbing out of the water onto the opposite bank. There wasn't any point in that.

Only one person down here and he was a liar. She opened up her bag and pulled the headset out. A loop of angry shouting streamed out. She flinched.

"Okay. I'm here," she said.

There was a minute of silence. "Maka?" a voice said at last. "You were supposed to contact me as soon as you went through!"

Right. "I forgot." She flinched again at the shout. "Well I was kind of upset! My house, do you know how high up it is? It's higher than a mountaintop! Your game did that!"

"You wanted to play too."

"You didn't tell me -"

"It's not like I knew!" Silence. "What's it like there?"

"It's all black rock and dead water, and the sky's covered with clouds, I can't see anything but them. I met someone, too! H - what's happening there?"

"Nothing. Rensi can't play yet. But who'd you meet? Another sprite?"

"No, a person - I mean, a regular person."

"A player? There can't be anyone else playing."

"No -" Maka paused. She wasn't sure, actually. "I'm pretty sure he's not a player. I think he'd have said so. He said he works for an empire that owns my planet."

"Oh."

"He's an alien! And, and he says they have sovereigns, and he doesn't like them so um he, he wanted me to get rid of one of them, and it's, um."

"So?"

"So it's a lot different when it's an actual person!" Maka shouted. "It's not like just hitting a button to pick the right thing to say, and then hooray you saved them all! They're really aliens and I don't know anything nobody does because nobody's met them ever before and I told him he had to talk to somebody else but then he was really angry and he said I had to agree myself. So I left."

"You're such a baby."

"Well he was probably going to attack me again," Maka said. "And he was just a liar, anyway, he said all of you were dead, and I didn't want to talk to somebody like that. I'm going to look for someone else."

"What if the whole species is like that? Liars."

"I'm sure they're not."

"I bet that's what people said about the ostriches."

"It is not," Maka said, who could recite most of the details of what had happened from memory. "And ostriches aren't all the same anyway. Don't be a jerk."

"I didn't say they're all the same but they all killed eggs. There could be people where they were different but everyone lied."

"You can't have people where everyone's lying. They couldn't work together, that'd never evolve."

"Well, it's a game."

Maka hesitated. "Oh. You think that's it?"

"I don't know. You're the one playing right now."

"Hm," Maka murmured. "But, I'm not going to find out unless I find someone else. So either way I'll have to to learn anything."

"Just don't be gullible."

"I'm not!" she huffed. "I'm going back to exploring now, do the server things or whatever it is you're supposed to do while you wait to play."


	6. Siren

Jack: Chase SPINELESS EXCUSE FOR A DESTINED HERO

Despite what Jack may be (mostly) dressed as, he's not going to let anyone walk him off to his death that easily. Again. With any luck the kid will drown. And if not, the underlings will probably finish it off. It really doesn't seem like much of a fighter.

That's not quite as good as getting it on his side, but he'll take what he can get, as long as what he can get involves someone dying.

And if by some chance the pansy does survive, maybe it'll have second thoughts about refusing his offer.

Complain about the ridiculous get-up.

Jack's attempts continue to be an overwhelming failure, although not for lack of trying.

Maybe he'd have more luck if he tried expressing his feelings with something other than swearing?

Nah.

Rensi: Play the game

Rensi is at a party!

Stop being at a party.

There are OSTRICHES at this party. Rensi wouldn't leave even if for some reason chunks of flaming rock were falling from the sky to obliterate her entire planet. Not that that would ever happen.

Rensi is sure the baby game will still be there when she's ready to play it later.

Rensi is currently showing off how cosmopolitan she is to everyone with a plate of fish eggs. Cultural sensitivity sure is important! As long as no one's getting eaten, anyway. They actually taste pretty good. Ostriches have the best ideas. They are ICONOCLASTS and COMPLETELY AWESOME.

Did you know ostriches practice ritual cannibalism? They're so cool. So. Cool. It's a shame they still don't get along well with anybody else just because they used to eat them and stuff. They just didn't know any better back then! You'd think they were dolphins or something from how the octopus act.

Screw dolphins. Rensi is going to eat one someday even if she has to swim the whole way herself.

Maka: Do something that doesn't involve eating dolphins.

Nothing Maka does will ever involve dolphins in any capacity, food or otherwise. Those things are horrible monsters that would disprove the existence of a loving god if disproving the existence of any god was ever something Maka concerned herself with.

Which it wasn't.

"Hello?" Maka called. She reared up on two legs. "I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you! I'd like to talk but I understand if you don't want that! If you know about this place I'd be willing to help you or something to pay you back for telling me!"

She waited. Silence.

Whatever had lived here had definitely been intelligent. There was a village built right on the waterline. The houses were round and looked like they were some sort of woven mesh covered in tar, although she wasn't sure. She didn't want to approach any closer, even though it seemed whoever had lived there had vacated the area. They might still be watching, and doing something like that would probably look aggressive.

She was sure it wasn't really abandoned. The houses bobbed slightly, and all the bodies of water she'd seen on the planet were completely still. Something must have been in them and fled before she got there.

"Okay, so okay I think you're probably hiding in the water, so I'm going to go this way and I'll stay on land, okay? If I'm wrong I apologize! I'm really sorry if I'm going toward you and I don't mean to but I really can't see you or anything so I'm just guessing! If you don't want me to go that way say so and I promise I'll go some other way!"

The water rippled and the top of a black head poked out.

"Hi! Are you the ones-"

The head vanished with a plop.

Maka sighed. "Sorry..." She carefully backed further away from the water and waited.

A head reappeared. She thought it was the same one as before. It still didn't say anything.

"Hi," Maka whispered.

It kept staring at her with huge black eyes.

"Do you talk?"

It turned white.

"I can't communicate by changing color," Maka said. "I just turn, er, black and less black. And I can't really control it, it's a temperature thing. I mean mostly it is."

"...c_a_n _y_o_u_ s_w_i_m_...?" Its voice was like popping bubbles.

"...Yes," Maka admitted.

The head disappeared.

"But I'm not going to hurt you! I'll stay out of the water if you want!" It didn't reappear.

She sighed, lying down on her belly. At least it hadn't actually told her to go away. Maybe it would come back if she waited. She settled down on the warm rocks.

Maka woke with a start. She'd had some horrible nightmare. Falling, and a world of cliffs and bridges, and cake that broke and bled when you dropped it, and war, and a voice saying _But it's okay. We win in the end._ like that meant anything. She shuddered.

There was no sign of whatever was in the water. They might have left, but...she had stayed away from the shore, so there was a good chance they hadn't fled completely. She shifted around on the rocks and kept waiting.

An ape grabbed her tail. She twisted, snapping her jaws shut around it and smacking it into the ground until it exploded into grist chunks.

She realized there was a school of black-eyed white heads staring at her. "I, um um um um," she whined, rearing up quickly and putting her hands on top of her mouth. "Um, I'm not, I won't, I-"

The heads lifted out of the water. She saw there was a beautiful frill of exposed gills on either side of their heads in a rainbow of pastel colors, like a precocious salamander's. Then those flattened down against the sides of their necks, almost invisible as the sirens slithered onto the rocks, their bright white bodies almost glowing against the blackness.

"You _killed_ an _underling_." The bubblepop voice had gained volume.

"I, yes, I think I'm supposed to?" Maka mumbled around her hands. "Spot wanted to get rid of all of them and they keep attacking me but -"

"You're _the_ Knight," another one said.

"Oh. Yes! That's what Spot said. I'm supposed to do something."

"_You're_ prophesied _to_ rid _the_ Land _of_ the _Denizen_."

"That's what the Knight is supposed to do?"

"The _Denizen_ is _a_ terrible _monster_," one said. "She _has_ banned _all_ colors _and_ shades, _and_ tore _the_ light _from_ the _planet_ to _be_ locked _away_ in _the_ clouds. _Now_ her _underlings_ wander _the_ Land, _destroying_ everything _that_ isn't _black_."

"That's terrible!"

The whole group nodded gravely. "They _desecrate_ our _holy_ statues, _ravage_ our _gardens_ and _burn_ our _homes_. We _once_ lived _across_ this _Land_ but _now_ we _rarely_ dare _leave_ the _water_."

"Why are they doing this to you?"

"Because _we're_ your _consorts_ and _worshipers_ of _the_ Great _Speaker_. We've _been_ waiting _for_ you _for_ hundreds _of_ years."

"Oh," Maka said. "I'm sorry I took so long. What can-"

They flushed black suddenly, turning and disappearing into the water.

"Hey. Kid." Jack spared a glower at the rippling water. "Bunch of pansies, aren't they? You're not going to get any help from them. But. I guess that's why they suit you." He scowled suddenly. "You're also a hard fishy to find. Surprised nothin's killed you yet."

"I'm not a fish," Maka said. "I don't think they are either, they look like really big sirens."

"I don't know what that is and I don't care," Jack said. "They're NATIVE CONSORTS."

"Did you get into a fight?" she asked.

"What?"

"Your clothes are all torn up." When she'd met him, there'd been a tasseled fringe at every edge of his shirt and pants. Now there were ragged edges all over him and his collar was missing completely. "And your shoes are gone." They'd been pretty weird looking, kind of like hooves.

"Oh. That's - because...I...fell. And the rocks are sharp."

"Your clothes are kind of shoddy, then," Maka said.

"Pieces of crap," he agreed.

"It's kind of weird how the cuts go all the way around though."

"_Fell_," he repeated. "Now shut up about it before you _fall_ on my knife."

"I don't understand what -" She yelped and scrambled away.

"You're pretty fast for something that's so slow on the uptake," he said, sounding impressed. He flipped the switchblade closed again.

"I don't think slow," Maka told him from the water. "You're just really mean and you get upset about everything, and also you're a liar."

"I'm not a liar!" He paused. "Wait. Fine. I ripped the stupid things. There, are you happy?"

That hadn't been what she'd meant, but... "Okay." She climbed out of the water enough that she could stand up, but kept her distance. "Why'd you rip them?"

"She made me dress up like a cow!"

"I like cows," Maka pointed out.

"Of course." He slouched against one of the juts of rock. "And probably every other wussy animal imaginable. If I end up in bunny ears... Can't believe the underlings didn't finish you off already," he said again. "Lucky, I guess. Weird you're not Knight of Light or some other thing like that, title'd fit you better. And maybe you'd have half a chance of actually using your powers."

Maka's eyes lit up. "I have powers?"

"Yup, that's about what I figured," he said dismissively. "Don't get your hopes up, kid, I don't think you'll be able to use any of them. But hey -" He gave her a friendly grin. " - being a sneaky coward might be useful for something too!"

"Um..."

"As you can see..." He gestured out over the still water. "Well, you're not going to get much help from those things. And when it comes to you winning with your own fighting skill...well, however lucky you may be, I don't think you're that lucky."

"They said there's a denizen and I have to make it stop burning their homes and stuff."

"Yeah, it's best to just ignore the twerps. They're just going to ask you to help them."

"But I want to help them."

"No, you want to help me. Because helping me is helping yourself, see?" He had a friendly grin again. "Otherwise you're GOING TO BE IN A GREAT DEAL OF TROUBLE."

Maka tried to edge toward the water without making it obvious. "I'm just a kid though, I can't make decisions about an alien's government."

"You don't have to make any decisions, just do what I tell you!"

"But doing that's still a decision," Maka pointed out in as placating a manner as she could. "It's really important, it's not the sort of thing that should be up to me. The adults-"

"I told you, they're dead."

"You're lying about that." Before he could say anything, she added, "I _know_ you're lying, I just talked to my friend a little while ago and nobody's dead. I mean, I guess people've died but just like normal dying, not my whole planet."

"They might as well be, in a few-" A radio went off.

"Spades. The first wall is almost fixed."

He snarled, then looked back to her. "We'll talk later," he said. He made it sound like a threat. Then he added, "Maybe once your mommy's been charboiled you'll realize you can't hide behind her."

"My mom's fine."

"Spades. Are you there?"

"I heard you!" he yelled into the radio, glaring at Maka the whole time. "I'm heading back right now."


	7. Language

Be Maka's server player.

It's hard being someone who doesn't even have a name yet! Are you sure?

Yes dammit.

Language!

What the f

ERROR insufficiently childfriendly.

You are now MAKA, engaging in some GRATUITOUS VIOLENCE instead.

That was close.

Had the basilisk's teeth closed a few inches lower, they would have sunk into the soft scales of her underjaw. Instead they scraped over the thicker armor of her cheek harmlessly. Maka squealed, bubbles filling the shallows, and twisted to try to shake it off against the rocks. She thrashed her tail, shooting into the depths, and felt its claws slide off her.

She expected it to start swimming, or to start thrashing like the black alien earlier, but when she turned she saw it just sank to the bottom and started walking around like it had on land. She waited uncomfortably to see if it would suffocate. It just kept pacing. So if they were fine in the water, why did they avoid it? It seemed to notice her, but instead of swimming or climbing the walls it jumped, then sank back down and tried again once it touched the ground.

Weird. Maybe it was a programming error or something. Maka decided to just leave it there. It didn't seem like it was doing any harm, and she had things to do. There was supposed to be a temple around here somewhere...

Something colorful moved along the rocks further on. She hadn't seen anything like that since arriving. She swam over. It looked like Jack, but different colored and bigger.

She popped out of the water and clambered onto the rocks. "Hi! Are you albino?"

It took a step back. Maka stood up quickly, putting her hands on her mouth. "I'm sorry I startled you." They probably had gators here. Stupid, stupid...

"I'm Prospitian," it said after a moment.

"I don't know what that is," Maka said, then paused. She felt like she'd heard it before, actually. But...

"I'm from the kingdom of Prospit."

"Is that like Derse?"

"No!"

Maka flinched. She was doing a terrible job. Why couldn't Mom be here, she'd know what to say. "But you look like somebody from Derse."

"We aren't anything alike," said what looked exactly like a taller, white-shelled Jack. Maybe all the aliens really were liars.

"Um...my home. Do you know what's happened to my home? The planet?"

"It's destroyed by the Reckoning."

"Oh." Maka couldn't help but sound disappointed. A race of aliens and they were liars about everything.

"But when you save Skaia, you'll be rewarded," the white thing said perkily, like it was trying to cheer her up.

"With my planet getting unblownup?"

"Well...no. Not that."

"But that's what I'd want."

"You'll get something better," it promised.

Maka stared at it. "There's nothing better than not killing everyone."

"Your planet was always doomed." It sounded somewhat frustrated. "You can't do anything about that. But if you defeat the Black King and perform the Ultimate Alchemy, you'll gain a great reward for your heroic service. And all of Prospit will do anything we can to aid you in your quest."

So was everything a lie or just some of it? Arg, why did she have to deal with this? Why couldn't they be aliens that acted like normal people? The help thing must be a lie, because things that were really helpful wouldn't be lying, and probably the reward was too... "What color are the rocks?" Maka blurted out.

It looked at her.

"Uh, to you. What color do they look like?"

"Black."

So they didn't lie about absolutely everything. It'd probably be easier if they did, but it was more reassuring that they made sense, at least a little. "Um, why are you here? I thought this belongs to the other kingdom."

Now it looked really confused. "No, this is your Land. Each destined hero has one. Derse orders the underlings here to oppress your consorts and hinder them."

"Does Prospit do that too?"

"No!"

"But so why are you here? I mean, I don't mean you shouldn't be here because it's mine or anything. But the sirens said only black things were supposed to be here, but now you're wearing lots of colors, and..."

"I'm traveling through to the Land of Paths and F-" It stared at something over her shoulder. "You should probably return to the water, Knight. Ogres." It quickly climbed over the rocks and disappeared behind them.

Maka turned. There were several unusually large apes - ogres? - which in addition to their size also seemed to have proportionally greater muscle mass on their body as well as moving much faster than - She dove back into the water.

Be the other guy.

Bad command or file name.

Be the other crocodile alien thing.

Rensi is too busy! We just went over this.

Be the other other crocodile.

Questionable grammar, but it'll do.

You're now MAKA'S SERVER PLAYER.


	8. Regarding People

Describe yourself.

What's to describe? Yani is a rather ordinary five and a half feet, with a stubby tail and snout. She lives in an equally ordinary section of networked tunnels with her mom. There are a few other kids around, but no one LIVES PARTICULARLY CLOSE and there's no one she's close to either. She spends a lot of time ON HER OWN or TALKING TO PEOPLE ON HER COMPUTER. She THINKS SHE'S MORE WORLDLY THAN SHE ACTUALLY IS. She is good at CODE and PUZZLES and is the one who made sense of RENSI'S BABY GAME which she is pretty sure is actually OCTOPUS TECH. Octopus are so cool. So. Cool.

They're also adorable! When Yani grows up she's going to live on the coast and work with them to recover lost technology and bite dolphins. She hates dolphins, partly because they're EXTREMELY CREEPY but mostly because they EAT PEOPLE.

She is super excited about the game! The game's code is impossibly complex and the best she could do was rig up an interface for it based on the directions she managed to decipher. She thinks it might be from the height of octopus civilization, before whatever horrible cataclysm destroyed everything and drove them to near extinction. Octopus history is UNDERSTANDABLY FRAGMENTED regarding the exact details, so this sort of thing is all guesswork! It doesn't really matter. It's not like this game is RELATED TO THE DESTRUCTION OF A GLOBAL CIVILIZATION or anything, so who cares exactly when it was in relation to that?

Secretly, she hopes the game is even older than that. Octopus HISTORIANS, who are more like PRIESTS repeating GARBLED TALES OF THE MYTHOLOGIZED PAST, say the destruction of their civilization is just an echo of a VAST DESTRUCTION that came before and inevitably will come again.

Octopuses don't have a very positive outlook on things. It's probably because they keep getting eaten by dolphins.

However, one theory is that there was a precursor race that died out before the octopus rose to prominence, or perhaps even before they evolved at all! They annihilated themselves, or maybe were wiped out by a big comet or something. SOME PEOPLE tend to dismiss this as a CRACKPOT THEORY because how could a giant civilization be completely wiped off the face of the planet? But Maka and Rensi are just dumb, obviously the octopus archeologists could have uncovered those traces but the records were destroyed when everything else was. But their knowledge of it survived and became part of their mythology! Why else would they have stories about it?

What if this game is from the precursors and the octopus found it? What if the precursors are actually from space? What if they left instead of being wiped out? What if planets are seeded with intelligent species from other planets and what if-

Yani really, really wants Rensi to stop hanging out with ostriches and sign on already. They're cannibals, so what? Lots of things are cannibals, it's just no one else makes a big production out of it! Maybe she'll bite Rensi if Rensi thinks it's so cool.

Maka: Ostriches or octopus?

Maka is too UNCONSCIOUS to have opinions!

Maka: Wake up

That's not how head injuries work, stupid.

Keep being Yani

Yani paced back and forth by the computer. What was taking so long? It was Rensi's game, you'd think she'd be slightly more interested in actually playing it than some ostriches! It wasn't like she couldn't see ostriches all the time where she lived.

"Ya-ni," the computer trilled.

"Finally!" Yani snapped at her, darting over. "How many things can you eat at one party?"

"All of the things," Rensi slurred. "They were delish and made of babies." Yani could practically hear the blood draining from her brain.

"Well, get me into the game before you pass out."

"You are soo bossy. If all of the ostriches ate all of your bossy they would be full forever!"

"Wouldn't that be nice."

Rensi's voice regained some life. "It's not like octopus didn't eat ostriches too, judgey."

"That wasn't the same at all!" Yani said.

"Eating people's eating people!" Rensi sang.

"Just turn on the game already."

"So unpatient."

"You're practically sleeptalking," Yani said in disgust. "You could have shown a little self control you know. It's your game, I don't know why you're not interested in playing."

"It'll be there tomorrow. It's just a game, Yani. It's not any huge deal."

"It's octopus tech!"

Rensi groaned. "Not this-"

"It is so! _You_ haven't been online but Maka's already started the game and she's in a bubble or something talking to imaginary aliens! Do you think anybody else had the capability to do that?"

"Ostriches do but we're keeping it a secret from you," Rensi said smugly. "Only it's even better because they didn't blow themselves up!"

"This is serious!"

"Yani it is a gaaame. Octopus tech suuucks. Their games were all boring puzzles and building and stuff!"

"Well, you don't have to play if you don't want to. Just turn it on long enough to deploy stuff for me and then you can go nap forever."

Maka: Wake up

Maka opened her eyes groggily to purple.

No no no she didn't want to be here she didn't this was bad she didn't want to fall or hear about people who wanted terrible things she wanted her mom she wanted to be somewhere else she didn't-

Something had her by the tail.


	9. Hyenas

Maka lunged, her teeth just missing the side of the retreating siren. She flailed backwards, thrashing around in the water.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry um," she babbled around her hands, "I um I'm sorry."

It didn't vanish as she expected but just stared at her with huge eyes, waiting patiently.

"I wasn't - I felt like - I just knew something had grabbed me and I didn't mean to." It was horribly, irresponsibly childish of her to still react like that over something tugging on her tail.

The siren stared at her for a while. Eventually it blinked.

"What happened?" Maka asked finally. "Where are we?"

That got a reaction. "_You_ were _attacked_ by _an_ ogre," the siren told her. "_It_ struck _at_ you _in_ the _water_. You _were_ stunned. _I_dragged _you_ beneath _the_ surface _and_ away."

"Thank you," Maka said, even more miserable. "I'm really, really sorry I tried to bite you."

"_You're_ the _Knight_ of _our_ Land," the siren said. "_We_ must _aid_ you."

"If, if something happens again, and you still want to help me, grab my mouth or something," Maka said. "I know that's where my teeth are but you won't get bitten, I wouldn't even be able to, beca-"

The siren's head plipped back under the water. Maka looked around to see some other ape coming into sight. Oh.

-Maka: Ostriches or octopus?

Maka really wishes there were hyena here.

Hyena are so cool. So. Cool.

Did you know hyenas don't lay eggs? They don't! They lay already-hatched babies! Like cows! And then the moms make babyfood for them out of their own bodies! It's nonfatal adorable cannibalism! And they carry babies around in their mouth just like regular moms! And they'll let you carry the babies around too!

Because why would they worry about that? Even if you were the dumbest clumsiest person ever, hyenas are almost as tough as crocodiles, at least crocodiles her age anyway. They don't have scales but they have really really tough hide that's practically as good, so even if you got startled and were super irresponsible and bit one by accident they'd be fine and you could just tell them you were sorry without them being dead.

They can even fall off rocks and be fine. You don't need to worry about hyenas. It'd be like worrying about your mom or something, it isn't like anything can hurt them!

They're not soft little scared things you could bite in half by accident when they were just trying to help you at all.

She floated motionless, trying to calm down. At least she hadn't actually managed to hurt someone... She felt raw. She'd...she'd been dreaming of something scary. She couldn't really remember, just that it had felt like listening to the opening of a horror story she'd already mistakenly heard once and wanting desperately to turn it off or run away so she didn't have to go through that again, even though she had no idea what the actual scary thing she was so afraid of was.

But that was really silly, wasn't it? And what sort of horror story started with a purple room, anyway? Purple was the color of shiny beetles, and tiny flowers, and the best tasting meat, and the sky before bedtime, and Spot's tongue. Maybe it'd been that story the poor sirens told, about banning color, and that's what'd made her have such a weird dream.

The ape had stopped by the water. It had really long arms that curled like tentacles. Oh...yes, she remembered that one of the big things had suddenly raised an arm that looked like that. She sighed, swimming toward it. Well...she could get rid of that thing for them. At least that'd be somewhat helpful.

-Stop being de Nile crocodile

"Okay," said Yani. "So, from what happened with Maka, the kernalsprite needs two objects to work properly, not one. I put one in, but it was all messed up until after she put another one in after entering."

"What happens if you put both in before entering?"

"Hm... Let's find out!" She rushed over to her toybox,

"I thought you said we were supposed to hurry because it was dangerous or something?"

"I must have misunderstood something. Nothing happened while I was deploying stuff for Maka. Maybe this doesn't really count as the game at all and it's only after you enter? That's when all the monkeys showed up and Maka got stuck up in the clouds.

"What?"

"It's not important," Yani said quickly, digging around.

The cursor hovered over the box and suddenly upended the whole thing on her head.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, I was trying to see if I could grab something inside."

Yani grabbed a plush octopus off her head. "This, definitely. Having a sprite octopus would be so cool."

The cursor poked a stuffed bee toy with a pink and purple dress, gauzy wings and a sword. "I can't believe you like that lame show."

"Oh come on, Knight B is great! She's a drone so she fights with a sword because she doesn't have a stinger because it doesn't matter how you're born you can still do awesome stuff and save your hive! And then she and her girlfriends start an order of drone knights to serve the queen at the end!"

"But it's so stupid, everyone knows the drones are the boy ones!" Rensi groaned. "The hyena never pay any attention to biology!"

"No one but you cares! They're bees, it doesn't matter what they really are, it's not like they really wear clothes and talk and are knights either!"

"Hey, put it in," Rensi said. "You said the sprite talks, right? It'll tell you I'm right."

"It'll tell you it's a girl because it's a fictional character that's a girl drone okay? The fictional bees don't have to work exactly like real bees, they can have boys and girls in all the different classes."

"There were only one boy in the whole show and it was was just that one worker love interest! It didn't make any sense at all! How could they even reproduce, the workers are all sterile!"

"Fine, let's put it in and it'll tell you how wrong you are." She dug through the pile of toys, pulling out something shiny. "Just wait a second, I want to see what happens if I put her armor on. I mean, how does it define a single prototyping? Maybe you can do a whole pile of stuff at once."

-Rensi: Gain knowledge indicative of VERY BAD THINGS ABOUT TO HAPPEN

Rensi doesn't need to gain anything, It's abundantly clear that VERY BAD THINGS ARE ABOUT TO HAPPEN and Rensi's life as she knows it is LITERALLY OVER. Namely, Rensi's promised to play what's apparently going to be a DEADLY BORING GAME. There's no way Yani will let her off the hook after all the work to get Rensi's game functional, never mind that Rensi didn't think it'd be STUPID PUZZLE BULLSHIT when she said she wanted to find out what the game was. No one likes STUPID PUZZLE BULLSHIT. Yani THINKS she does, but that's Yani for you.

Sometimes Rensi wonders if the reason the octopi blew themselves up was because short lives of getting eaten by dolphins (and occasionally ostriches and each other) looked downright appealing compared to sitting around with nothing better to do but play another of their games.

Rensi is absolutely certain there is no fate worse than collaborative puzzle solving. If it wasn't for the fact that crocodilian architecture is lacking in high anythings to throw oneself off of due to their CRIPPLING FEAR OF HEIGHTS and GENERALLY LACKING CONSTRUCTION SKILLS, she would be seriously contemplating a dramatic leap right now. Also, if she wasn't feeling so sluggish and grumpy at the idea of having to do stuff.

Failing that, she's planning to sleep off her meal once setting up for Yani is done and hope Yani will get most of the puzzlework over with before she wakes up and has to play as well.

This plan will not backfire in the least.


	10. Flying High

"Hi!" Maka said. "Do you know this place is enormous?"

The sitting creature regarded her. It was the only thing in the enormous room.

"I'm really high up!" she added, doing a loop. The ceilings were impossibly high. Only in dreams could you have stuff like that. "Because I float! Can you float? I didn't see anybody floating but the ceiling so really high and why would you need it to be so high if you weren't going to float? Does it float? Is that why it doesn't fall down? You look cooool. Is it hard remembering all your limbs? You look important are you somebody important? What's your name?"

"I am the Black Queen," the woman said.

"Oh, you're the sovereign!" Maka said, clapping her hands. "Hyena have sovereigns too! How many babies do you have? Are you really wise and just and all that?"

The white eyes narrowed slightly.

"What the hell," Jack spat. Maka rolled in the air to see him standing in the distance, dressed in pink and purple. His voice carried very well.

"Jack," said the sovereign, tentacles pulsing, "behave yourself around the princess."

"Hi Jack!" Maka called, flipping so her head was facing him better. He looked like he was wearing pink hooves.

"She - she's - right there!" Jack sputtered. "Why doesn't you just kill her! She's in reach!"

"Jack. If you can't behave yourself you can sit outside."

"You could just stab her and get it over with! She bleeds fine!"

"It hurt!" Maka agreed.

Jack smacked himself in the face, the sound ringing in the empty room.

"But I understand it's important to respect cultural differences," Maka said solemnly. "Like ostriches think they can eat anything in their territory! And that's why we bought all the coast from them. I would really like you not to stab me, though. Because it hurts."

"Stabbing people isn't a cultural practice," the sovereign said, sounding amused. "It's a personal tradition of the archagent."

"It's the whole point!" Jack howled.

"Oh. But that's okay anyway. I know sometimes people do things and you have to just tell them that's wrong and make sure they can't do it again. He can't swim! Can you swim EVERYBODY I know swims except ostriches because they've got too many feathers and you look like an octopus and octopus live in the water -" She faltered. "Is there water here? It doesn't matter! Swimming is super fun though!"

The sovereign looked like she was considering. "I haven't tried."

"I bet you could because you have twelve whole limbs! But you probably couldn't float like me. Like me in the water I mean, not like here. Unless you can float like this if you can do that you can probably do it anywhere. It's really easy to float here but I haven't seen anybody do it which is really really scary because there's lots of high up places and what if people **fell**? Everyone here is super brave!"

"Of course they are," the sovereign said. "We do not float. Your ability to fly is a property of a dreamself."

"Oooh," Maka said. "Like when hyena say they dream about flying. That always seemed really scary but it really isn't like falling at all! I never dreamed of it before though. It's weird because...I was really scared of falling, today or yesterday or last week or something I don't remember really but when you're scared of things you have nightmares but this isn't a nightmare at all!" She did an upsidedown twirl in the air. "Maybe I'm dreaming about how I don't need to be scared?"

"This is stupid!" Jack burst out.

"Out, Jack," she said, pointing.

Maka turned back to watch him seethe and then grudgingly turn and stomp away, hooves thumping extra loud. "You should have an icecream!" she called. "Then you'll feel less grumpy!"

He spun. "I have a knife right here you don't even have to get one just stab her come on she won't even fight back just look at-"

"Jack." The sovereign was glaring.

He hissed and ground his teeth together like one of the little apes.

"I think I just made him madder..." Maka confessed quietly. "Do you think I should get him an icecream? Where does he live?"

"You can find him in his office," the sovereign said. "Ask for the guards to show you there if you have trouble finding it. Unlike Jack, you'll find them quite willing to help you." She shifted slightly, her tentacles curling and uncurling.

"Oh Jack wants to help me too!" Maka told her. "He wants to help LOTS. I think he's just not very good at being helpful. Do you know Rensi says the ostriches ferment gourds and then eat it and they get really happy but her mom says she can't have any. Do you have fruit like that? Maybe he'd be nicer."

"Perhaps pumpkins..." The sovereign looked amused.

"Oh, can I find those?"

She shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Don't concern yourself, Knight, he's always like this."

"Why is he so mad you didn't stab me, though?" Maka asked. "It's not like we're enemies."

That seemed like the right thing to say. The sovereign gave her a motherly smile. Maka grinned back. "I would like that to be so," the sovereign told her.

"Great! I don't think anybody should be enemies!" Maka spun around in delight, chasing her tail. "This whole place is your kingdom? It's really pretty! And magical the way everything stays up! And so many people I've never seen so many all in one place! Do you know where the best icecream is?"

"Have you gazed beyond Derse, Knight? Into the void?"

"The...the black sky place?" Maka said uncertainly. "It's weird! You don't have stars... It's like...like too-deep ocean." She settled against the ground nervously, digging her claws into the carpet for reassurance. "Where you can't feel where anything is, or see it, or smell it, it's just all empty and dark and there could be all sorts of terrible things. Like whales! Or just you'd get lost and never find your way back."

The sovereign nodded thoughtfully. "It would not be wise to fly out into it. It marks the edge of the Incipisphere. However, you may find things of interest if you regard it from the safety of Derse. Whispers of the future."

"Oooh. It talks?"

"In a manner."

Maka giggled. "That sounds so cool! I'll stare at it really hard then! Oh. But there's also the icecream. Could you give him icecream from me? So he won't be so mad?" she asked.

"Of course," the sovereign said. "You're our princess."


	11. Crashing Down

Maka had meant to look at the black empty void. She really had. But everywhere else was so lovely and purple, and full of so many people in such funny clothes, and as soon as she went out of the palace there was just so much to see that she forgot. And floating was so much like swimming, and all the people were so strange because they weren't swimming with her but walking, like crabs or something on the riverbed, only the sand was purple and not sand at all.

It took Maka a second to realize someone was dropping way too fast. It was okay when crabs fell. They just slid gracefully through the water and landed in a puff of sand, but there wasn't any sand or water and the person was just falling like _falling_ and-

She dove, getting her teeth and claws around the alien but they were still too fast and she smashed into the smooth stone, skidding and bouncing and the other person spinning away. She stumbled to her feet again.

The others had gathered around the one she'd tried to grab, who was prone, bleeding where the shell on their leg had cracked.

"Is anybody a doctor?" Maka asked them. "Don't just stand around, get a doctor! They're hurt!"

The people stared at her, looking confused. "What's a doctor?" one asked.

The world distorted out of focus. "They can't die," Maka said. She wasn't sure who she was talking to now.

One patted her on the side. "Don't worry, Princess. It's okay. Even if many people died we'd still beat Prospit." Everything was flickering in and out.

"Please don't die. Please don't let them die." Maka tried to focus, watching the injured one. Another one was trying to help them to their feet.

"He won't die," another one told Maka. They were all clustered around her now, like she was the one to be concerned about. "Don't cry, Princess."

"I'm sure he'll be back at work very soon," someone said.

"And they'd send someone else from the Veil if he couldn't."

"It's okay."

"We'll win."

"Maka um Maka um Maka!"

Maka barely had time to jolt awake before something scrambled atop her, pushing her under the water. "Maka hey um," Yani continued as Maka swam ashore and crawled onto the rocks. "Um um Maka Maka you like creepy gross animals right?"

"Off," Maka said.

"All animals right um Maka um you're super brave right Maka and you think scary gross things are cool so-"

Maka reared up. "You're not a baby!" Yani slid off only to claw her way up Maka's back again. "What? Calm down already."

"Let's um let's trade planets okay um please? I'll take super good care of your amphibian snakes."

"What? No! Why?"

"But mine are horrible!" Yani wailed in Maka's ear. "They keep screaming and screaming nonsense and it's so gross and I can't even tell them to stop it because it's how they know where stuff is in the fog and they'd crash into something and fall a million mile and die!"

"Eurgh. You mean they talk like dolphins?"

"Like flying dolphins so you can't even just get away from them and it's the most disgusting thing ever! They won't leave me alone Maka they're all following me around saying I'm their hero and am I hungry and they want me to go back to their villages and there's terrible things cracking the world apart and killing their babies and everything is soooo high and they keep saying they're not going to fall but they're going to run into stuff and fall I just know it and there's always disgusting screaming and even when it's not nonsense there's these things, echoes, and they make words into nonsense and they think it's funny and it's so creepy Maka!"

That sounded like the most disturbing place imaginable. Luckily - "I don't think we can swap places. They seem to know about each of us and there's different prophesies. I'm in charge of this place and you're in charge of whatever place your planet is."

"It's the Land of Paths and Fog," Yani said. "They told me. They said all sorts of stuff between the horrible screaming. All of us have different powers, although probably none of the powers do anything about them. I mean, I didn't ask but probably not."

"Oh, I heard about that from one of the lying aliens! He said I didn't get light, which I guess is a really good one. But maybe you or Rensi will?"

Yani shook her head, making shadows flicker as she blocked the light for a second above Maka's eyes. "No, we've got Heart, Rage, and Breath, whatever those do. They had this song about the three heroes. I didn't really want to ask questions because then they screech more while they answer."

"Well," Maka said as calmly and authoratatively as she could, because it was easier to be mature when you're sure it won't be your problem, "remember that echolocation isn't really nonsense, it just sounds like nonsense but it's not actually supposed words at all. Maybe you, you can..." All the solutions were kind of creepy too, but there was only so much that could be done. "You can make headphones to block the high sounds."

"Ugh!"

"It's not like you're making it so you can't hear somebody talking," Maka said. "In fact it'd help you hear them when they are talking. It's no different than turning off a computer to stop talking to somebody, really. And I'm sure the flying whatevers won't mind because if it's ecolocation they're only making the noise for themselves and not you to hear in the first place. Did you know a lot of animals can't even hear the sounds?"

Yani whined softly.

"Also, get off me already."

"Are you sure we can't switch?" Yani said, finally stepping off her back.

"Yeah. You can hang out here a while to calm down, but I think each of us is supposed to fix our own planet. I mean, they said you were their hero and not me, right?"

"I was hoping they just said that to anybody."

"I don't think so. Apparently I'm the Knight so I'm the one in the stories about fixing this place. You have your own title and job, and maybe your planet's taken over by different lying aliens. Mine's by the black ones and there's white ones around, and maybe some others we haven't seen yet. We're probably supposed to trick them somehow so they'll leave our planets alone."

"You're probably right..." Yani said. "I should probably just go back and get it over with. I, um, don't actually know how to get back. I think there's a portal or something at your house, and there should be a portal back around here somewhere."

"A portal back?"

"Yeah, you haven't used them? There's a bunch of portals to get back to your house when you need a break or something. They're all one-way."

"Weird." She really didn't need anything back at her house, though, and also it was still up above the clouds and could fall over any second. It seemed like a good idea not to remind Yani of that. "Well, you can go look for that, I'm going to look for more of my consorts and see if they need me to do something. They're really nervous." She headed back into the water. "Watch out for the really big apes, they hit hard and the tentacle ones can reach super far."

"Don't worry, I've seen them."

"You."

"Hi...Jack..." Maka said. "Uh... This village, it, uh, it seems to be on fire."

"It is on fire!"

"Yes, uh..." She hesitated. "So, you seem - uh, you're angry..."

"Ever heard the phrase, 'If you're not with me, you're against me'?"

"No."

He glared at her like that was the wrong answer.

"Sorry," she squeaked. "Uh...so, do you mean people can only be friends or enemies? Because I think-" He produced a knife and she edged backward.

"So with that in mind," he said, voice low, "have you considered my proposal?"

"Um," said Maka. "Um. Um." Then, "You said you lived on another planet, right? Can I go there and see things? Is that what I'm supposed to do, go there next?"

"You're already there," Jack said.

Maka glanced around. "I thought this place was my-"

"Your other you, the asleep one! The dreamself!" Jack snapped. At her expression, he said, "This isn't hard to understand!"

"So...I'm already there?" Maka repeated.

"Both of you," Jack grumbled, at which point Maka gave up any hope of understanding this. "Not supposed to just gut you in your sleep, though. _Not how it's done._ Do you see what I have to put up with? Just leave you alone and unperforated."

"I'd rather not be stabbed, though," Maka pointed out.

"Huh? Oh, right. Well, I'm not going to stab you, am I?" Maka stared at the still drawn knife. "What with us being allies and all. You're going to have to kill the both of them anyway."

"I'm what?"

"Or be killed. One or the other. But that kind of future stuff is for the WISE AND JUST LEADER to concern herself with. What matters to you is that we're on the same side." He gave her a friendly grin. There was the faint hissing as a piece of burning wood fell into the water. "So there's no need for me to be stabbing you, right? Nothing to worry about from me." He leaned casually against a timber.

It gave way.

"You haven't learned to swim?" Maka asked curiously.

He glowered up at her, holding tight to the piece of wood. "What."

"Swimming," Maka said. "You know, moving your body, but not like all over the place the way you were doing it. I mean, I don't know if you can but you seemed like you had an okay range of movement. And you weren't _that_ heavy-"

He snarled and tried to claw at her, only to sink with a confused burble.

Maka quickly reached down, plunging into the smokey water to grab one flailing arm.

It was surprisingly hard to pull him out. For some reason after she gripped him he panicked and started thrashing around worse, his other hand clawing at her face. Drowning must be really scary, Maka thought, wrenching backward to pull him onto the wood. She could taste blood in her mouth.

"You shouldn't struggle so much when someone's trying to pull you out!" she chided.

"You bit me! What did you think I'd do? Hold still?"

Maka cringed. "You - you thought I'd-" She went silent.

Sometimes, things thought she might hurt them because she was bigger than they were, or faster, or because some cousin species had eaten one of their actual cousins. Other times it wasn't like that at all.

She thought about what he'd said. He wouldn't stab her because they were allies. But he also said...

"You said that you weren't allowed to stab me. Us," Maka said. "Why not?"

"Because you're _princesses_," he spat.

That was...she'd heard that before.

"I'm not."

"There's something wrong with you, kid. You just had a chat with her imperial MAJESTY. Made a commotion flying all over Derse..."

"That was just a dream!"

"Right," Jack said with exaggerated patience. "Your _dream_self."

Select Character _

Be Maka

Maka is occupied with CURLING IN A BALL and CRYING FOR HER MOMMY.

You should probably just be someone else for a while.

No

"Kid - kid -" Jack kicked her. "What's wrong with you now? Of all the luck to get the most useless heroes-"

She was supposed to be a...?

"It's all real. Everything I heard? Is all of that really real? And the person - it's - you're really at war?"

"Yeah. With Prospit." He eyed her speculatively. "Upset?"

"Yes, you have to make them stop it!"

"Hey, I'm not go-"

"You have to you have to!" Maka howled, prompting him to take a step backward.

He was silent for a beat. "Let me finish. Like I was saying, I'm not the one you wanna talk to get that done. It's the MONARCHS that run stuff, you know? It's like, hey, like in that dumb story of yours! You gotta kill them to end the war."

"How do I do that?"

"For starters, you're going to have to stop lazing around splashing in puddles and get stro-"

"No! How do I get there?"

He shrugged. "Go to sleep."

"I can't just decide to go to sleep! How can I go there right now?"

"If that's what you want...Hold still."

Maka: Hold still

It may reassure you somewhat that this is not the stupidest thing you will ever do in your life.


End file.
